Easy Star’s Thrillah Michael Jackson Tribute Album

Reggae band Easy Star All-Stars is known for its successful reggaefied tributes to various popular artists and recordings, including Dub Side of the Moon (2003), Radiodread (2006) and Easy Star’s Lonely Hearts Dub Band (2009). To celebrate Michael Jackson’s birthday, which is on August 29th, the Easy Star All-Stars are releasing their new album titled Easy Star’s Thrillah this week. Easy Star’s Thrillah is the reggae adaptation of one of the greatest selling records of all time, Michael Jackson’s Thriller. In addition, the band will also go on tour, starting in September.

“We’ve always tackled the greats – The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Radiohead – but while we wanted to take on another huge album, we also wanted to blaze new trails,” says says Easy Star Records co-founder Lem Oppenheimer. “In Thriller we found those new trails in a number of firsts for the series: the first album by an American artist, the first non-concept album, the first R&B/soul record, as well as the first release from the 80s.”

“For me, I was most excited for Thriller,” says Michael Goldwasser. “I was always more of an R&B/soul and reggae kid growing up and I have an intense personal connection to Michael Jackson’s music… Writing the arrangements for this album was a cool challenge. I didn’t have to try to make non-dance music into dance music as on our previous albums because the original Thriller is so danceable already, but I needed to find ways to make each song groove in a different way from the original version. I didn’t want any of the arrangements to be obvious in that regard.”

In great reggae tradition, Easy Star All-Stars have slowed down the tempo of some of Michael Jackson’s
most famous songs, including the hit ‘Thriller.’ Easy Star’s Thrillah is a winning mix of reggae, dub and R&B.

Author: Angel Romero

Angel Romero y Ruiz has been writing about world music and progressive music for many years. He founded the websites worldmusiccentral.org and musicasdelmundo.com. Angel co-produced “Musica NA”, a music show for Televisión Española (TVE) in Spain that featured an eclectic mix of world music, fusion, electronica, new age and contemporary classical music. Angel also produced and remastered world music and electronic music albums, compilations and boxed sets for Alula Records, Ellipsis Arts, Music of the World, Lektronic Soundscapes, and Mindchild Records. He was also the executive producer of the first Latino feature film made in North Carolina titled “Los sueños de Angélica.”.